Friday, October 19, 2012

Our Maker Gives Songs In The Night

"God, my Maker, who giveth songs in the night."—Job 35:10.

Any man can
sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it.
When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God
who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. It is easy
enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow—the
difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is
easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skilful
who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by—who sings from his
heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt
it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired.
Let all things go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I
go out of the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert,
where no green thing grows, and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise
to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no
jewels are? Let but this voice be clear, and this body full of health,
and I can sing God's praise: silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of
languishing, and how shall I then chant God's high praises, unless He
Himself give me the song? No, it is not in man's power to sing when all
is adverse, unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine
song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said, "Although the
fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the
flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the
stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my
salvation." Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let
us wait upon Him for the music. O Thou chief musician, let us not remain
songless because affliction is upon us, but tune Thou our lips to the
melody of thanksgiving.